Paver with connectors

ABSTRACT

The invention relates to a paving composed of a plurality of individual paving stones with irregularly curved lateral faces. The individual paving stones have, on their irregularly curved lateral faces, chains or partial chains of adjoining, spaced apart strip-shaped connection sections that mesh together in the manner of a gear rack with connection sections of adjoining paving stones. This makes it possible to achieve paving connections even with randomly shaped paving stones.

The present invention relates to pavement formed by a plurality of individual pavers with irregularly curved side faces.

Pavement is usually structured in right-angle arrays. So far this the known composite systems of pavers. In addition, there is only one system based on circularly segmental pavers.

From a functional and design point of view, however, pavers are also known that are not quadrilateral, some of which are based on natural paver shapes.

The object of the present invention is to provide a pavement of the above-described type wherein the formation of a network system using different paver shapes is possible.

According to the invention, this object is attained by a pavement of the specified type in which the individual pavers on their irregularly curved side face carry rows or partial rows of adjacent strip-shaped connector ridges, the rack-like with connector ridges of adjacent interlocking pavers.

In the case of the pavement formed according to the invention has pavers with any shape, irregularly curved side faces that are each provided with a plurality of strip-shaped connector ridges either in a row extending around the entire circumference of the paver or in corresponding partial rows of connector ridges that are spaced from one another. Since the pavement structure is not necessarily fixed at their freely shaped paver sides, it is not a problem, when laying the pavement, to slightly shift or rotate one or more of the affected pavers to make a fixed connection with the neighboring pavers.

In a first embodiment of the invention, the individual pavers have irregularly curved side faces each with a respective circumferential row of provided connector ridges. Here, therefore, the connector ridges extend around the entire circumference of the paver, so that when laying the pavers with one not corresponding rotations or displacements without further ado are possible around corresponding connections by means of a rack-like engagement with one another to realize stepping connector ridges of neighboring pavers.

In another embodiment, the individual pavers are irregularly shaped and their curved side faces each have a plurality of spaced partial rows of connector ridges. Here therefore the connector ridges extend not around the entire perimeter of the paver, but there are gaps that can fulfill other desired functions. Here for example, the length of the partial rows can correspond to the size of the gap between the partial rows, so that when pavers are put together, a partial row of one paver can fit with the gap between the partial rows of another paver.

The respective partial rows can, for example, each have two or three connector ridges.

For example, the empty sections between the partial rows can be used as infiltration area so that in this way rapid drainage of the pavement is ensured.

In a further embodiment, the pavement formed according to the invention can have pavers with generally planar side faces on which rows or partial rows of adjacent strip-shaped connector ridges spaced from one another are arranged, the teeth or bar-like connector ridges meshing neighboring interlocking pavers with irregularly curved and/or flat side faces.

In this embodiment, the pavement designed according to the invention therefore has both pavers with irregularly curved side faces as well as pavers with geometrically regular structures, for example as rectangular pavers, hexagonal pavers and the like can be designed. Even with such pavers with flat side faces the connector ridges extend as rows either over the entire circumference of the side faces or as partial rows only over part of the circumference thereof.

In general, it can be said that a paver of the pavement according to the invention can have as many connections as the number of contacts with neighboring pavers through the interlocking connecting sections of the neighboring pavers. This applies to pavers with irregularly curved side faces as well as also to those with flat side faces. As the pavers have along their entire circumference with corresponding connector ridges over a large part of their circumference, when laying, the corresponding connections can always be created by shifting or rotating to connect with neighboring pavers in order to achieve a stable laying pattern that withstands loads.

The pavement according to the invention can thus consist of pavers with any paver shape, whereby in each case by adhering to the invention a desired paver bond can be achieved when laying the pavement sections.

As far as the strip-shaped connector ridges are concerned, these are preferably in semicircular in section. The connector ridges only extend over part of the height of the respective pavers.

In a special embodiment, the connector ridges of the pavers are in vertically stepped, creating particular advantages in terms of flexibility, resilience, and drainage of the pavement.

In yet another embodiment, the connector ridges of the pavers are flattened on their outer edges or have a recess to allow them to distribute joint material.

In addition to the connector ridges in the lower area of the pavers, further projecting sections of connector ridges can be easily provided with the connector ridges to form a double network system. The aim here is to have a relatively narrow area in the lower area to achieve contact with the neighboring pavers, which then becomes wider toward the top, allowing more joint filling to be added.

As for the spacings between the individual connector ridges of a paver, these are preferably dimensioned so that a connector ridge of a neighboring paver can fit between two connector ridges of the other paver, either with or without contact with two flanking connector ridges of the other paver. After this interfit of connector ridges, either no relative movement or only slight relative movement in the direction of the joint of the two pavers is still possible. Large spacings between the connector ridges are in any case undesirable.

If the case of pavers with irregularly curved side faces, then this mainly applies to pavers without shaped side edges. However, this does not rule out that such pavers can also have such edges if they only have one curved side face. According to the invention, it is therefore primarily about irregularly shaped pavers, but in connection with regularly shaped pavers a being able to form appropriate pavements.

The invention is described with reference to embodiments shown in the drawing. Therein:

FIG. 1 is a top view of part of a first embodiment of a section of pavement; and

FIG. 2 is a plan view of part of a second embodiment of a section of pavement.

The section of pavement shown in FIG. 1 consists of three pavers 1, 2 and 3 each having an irregularly curved side face 20, a bottom face and a top face. The pavement shown here can therefore be made of pavers of any shape, that is put together from pavers with randomly curved side faces.

Each paver 1, 2, 3 has on each of its irregularly curved side face 20 rows of adjacent and mutually spaced connector ridges 4. These connector ridges 4 extend approximately from the bottom face of the respective paver upward to near the respective top face. The connector ridges 4 are of approximately semicircular shape in cross section spaced from one another such that connector ridges of adjacent pavers fit in the gaps between two connector ridges 4 like a rack, as shown in FIG. 1.

The rows of the connector ridges 4 extend around the entire circumference of the respective paver. In FIG. 1 this is only partially shown.

When laying the pavement, the individual pavers 1, 2, 3 are put together with at least one connection between adjacent pavers. Such a connection is formed in that a connector ridge 4 of a paver is inserted like a gear into the gap between two connector ridges of the neighboring paver. FIG. 1 shows such a fixation between pavers 2 and 3. If the paver 1 does not fit naturally in this position, the corresponding connector ridges will collide or not fit exactly into the gaps of the neighboring paver, the pavers will accordingly rotate or move until there is a position in which all the pavers engage with each other to mesh. Such a rotated or displaced position of the paver 3 is shown in FIG. 1 at 5 in broken lines.

Due to the plurality of connector ridges 4, this results during laying of positioning of the pavers in which a mutual engagement of the connector ridges is achieved. For this, the pavers do not have to be of identical or regular shapes.

In the embodiment of the section of payment shown in FIG. 2, two pavers 1, 2 each with an irregularly curved side face fit with a regularly shaped paver 7 of generally rectangular horizontal section. Here each of the pavers 1 and 7 has a circumferential row of on its side face of strip-shaped connector ridges 4, while the paver 2 on its side face 2 has partial rows 6 of such connector ridges. Here there are between the rows 6 empty areas of the side face serve for example, as seepage areas in the pavement.

In this embodiment, too, when the pavement is laid, connections or connections 8 are provided between the pavers in which connector ridges 4 of the one paver mesh like a rack into the gaps of connector ridges of the other paver. It is also true here that the arrangement and shape of the connector ridges permit the pavers can be shifted or rotated accordingly when they are put together, thereby meshing with connector ridges of the adjoining pavers with each other. 

1. Pavement formed from a plurality of pavers each having: an irregularly curved side face provided with rows or partial rows of adjacent strip-shaped connector ridges interlocking rack-like with connector ridges of neighboring pavers.
 2. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein each of the individual pavers is provided on its irregularly curved side faces with a circumferential row of the connector ridges
 3. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein each of the individual pavers is provided on its irregularly curved side faces with a plurality of spaced apart circumferential partial rows of connector ridges.
 4. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein lengths of the partial rows correspond to a spacing between the partial rows.
 5. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein the partial rows each have two or three of the connector ridges.
 6. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein empty sections between the partial rows form infiltration areas.
 7. The pavement according to claim 1, further comprising: pavers with flat side faces provided with the rows or partial rows of the adjacent and spaced apart strip-shaped connector ridges that mesh in a rack-like manner with connector ridges of neighboring pavers irregularly curved and/or planar side faces.
 8. The pavement according to claim 7, wherein the pavers with planar side faces are rectangular.
 9. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein the connector ridges of the pavers are stepped vertically.
 10. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein the connector ridges of the pavers have outer edges that are flattened or grooved.
 11. The pavement according to claim 1, wherein, in addition to the connector ridges in the lower area of the pavers, further rows of connector ridges are provided that together with the connector ridges form a double composite system. 